If Abbott really wanted to be fiscally virtuous, he wouldn’t just be trying to determine the best strategy for costing all of his promises, he’d be looking at it in a much more holistic manner.

He’d be looking at the demand side for all of this as well.

He can only see the supply side – ever more services, ever more infrastructure and an eternal struggle to improve the quality of all the existing stuff…. while the pressure on the existing stuff and the demand for ever more rapidly increases with no end in sight, and absolutely without a single thought of any action being taken to address it!!

This really is as hopelessly unbalanced and non-holistic as he can get!

Abbott absolutely needs to look at the demand side of the great economic equation instead of entirely concentrating on the supply side.

The solution is simple – reduce immigration to net zero and steer our country towards a stable population.

I hope to goodness that Abbott’s special commission of audit "to identify savings and efficiencies in all areas of government" and deliver "better value for money and sustainable budget surpluses into the future" realises how important it is to address the demand side as well.

If it doesn’t, it will be a pointless exercise! He will simply have no chance of delivering a sustainable balanced budget, let alone one in surplus.

I believe that commissions of audit are a very good idea.

Thank you for a most informative and timely article.